Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James was named today as the NBA's Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, February 1st through Sunday, February 7th.
In three games during the week, James averaged an NBA-best 35.0 points on .541 shooting, 7.0 rebounds and 10.3 assists in 40.3 minutes per game. James wins the award for the fifth time this season and the 25th time in his career. He has also won all three Eastern Conference Player of the Month awards presented by Kia Motors this season. With winning all three games this week, James has now led the Cavaliers to an NBA-high tying 11-game winning streak (tied with Boston and the Los Angeles Lakers) and the best record in the NBA at 41-11 (.788) record. Cleveland has also now won nine straight games at home and possesses the best home record in the NBA with a 22-3 (.880) record.
James recorded his 19th double-double this season with 22 points and a career-tying 15 assists and added six rebounds, one steal and one block versus the Memphis Grizzlies on February 2nd at Quicken Loans Arena. In a 102-86 victory over the Miami Heat, he finished with a game-high 36 points on 9-16 (.563) shooting, including making a season-high 17 free throws on 21 attempts (.810), eight assists, seven rebounds and two steals in 40 minutes.
On February 6th at The Q, he scored a franchise-record 35 points in the first half (surpassing Walt Wesley's 34 points in the second half versus Cincinnati on February 19, 1971) and finished the night with 47 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and a season-high tying five steals in 44 minutes. With the Cavs leading 28-19 with 3:38 left in the first quarter, James scored the team's next 24 points (all in a six-minute stretch), outscoring the Knicks by 12 to make the score 52-31. The last player to score 24 or more straight points for his team was Carmelo Anthony, who scored 26 points in a row on December 10, 2008 versus Minnesota. James' 23 points in the first quarter tied a Quicken Loans Arena individual record for most points in a period, which he also tied on January 31st versus the Los Angeles Clippers. He has now scored at least 20 points in a period five times this season (four of them in the last 14 games) and 11 times in his career. He also topped the 40-point mark for the 39th time of his career. James was the first player to have a least 47 points, eight assists, eight rebounds and five steals in a game since Rick Barry (64 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists and five steals) did for Golden State versus Portland on March 6th, 1974.
The Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook was named the Western Conference Player of the Week. Other nominees for the Eastern Conference Player of the Week were Atlanta's Joe Johnson, Boston's Rajon Rondo, Charlotte's Stephen Jackson and Orlando's Dwight Howard.